My Braces Want To Kill Nina
by Dougster
Summary: Nina's finally gone too far. But neither she nor Sharon could ever have guessed where it would lead...


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A/N: In the Wednesday entry, Sharon mentions a time when she imagined her braces zapping Nina. This happened at the end of episode 1, "Brace Yourself."

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From Sharon Spitz's diary

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Monday

Dear Diary,

I can't believe what happened at school today! It was the worst nightmare in my whole life! Some guy named Dr. Mezmer came to Social Studies class to demonstrate hypnosis. Oh, why did Alden have to volunteer? As soon as the doctor had him under a trance, Nina got out of her seat and ran up to him. "Alden," she said, "listen carefully. You hate braces. You cannot stand the sight of anyone with braces. Whenever you see a metalmouth, you want to puke!" Everybody was laughing so hard, and I wanted to die!

After class, Maria did her best to make me feel better. "It's just an act," she said. "Forget it."

Believe it or not, it wasn't an act. For the rest of the day, Alden couldn't look at me without turning green! When I went up to him at his locker, he actually recoiled. When he saw me at lunch, he -- well, he didn't _lose_ his lunch, but he came close. And I was really hoping he'd take me to the school football game on Friday! Nina and her friends were watching, of course, and they couldn't stop giggling. When I got home I fell on my bed and cried.

How could even Nina do this to me? I could -- no, I shouldn't say that.

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Tuesday

Something weird is happening. Every time I saw Nina today, I could swear I felt my braces pulling me toward her. Maybe she's wearing some weird magnetic jewelry, who knows?

Twice in the halls, the pull got so strong that I thought my braces might actually rip themselves out of my mouth. Of course Nina noticed. You should have seen how smug she looked! "Following me, Braceface? Well, forget about begging me to change Alden back. Nothing can undo it, the trance was too deep. Dr. Mezmer told me so himself, after class!" (That doctor, by the way, just laughed along with everyone else when it happened! Why didn't he stop her?!!)

I'm wondering just how much worse this can get...

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Wednesday

Now I know. It's crazy, but I think my braces are after Nina.

I felt the pull every time I saw her. It got really bad at lunch when she was standing in the cafeteria, chatting with her usual cronies. My mouth started to hurt, it got so bad.

Then I noticed that Nina was standing under one of the cafeteria's fluorescent lights. Remember how I imagined my braces zapping her with the disco ball at the dance? Well, this time it really happened. I don't know how it happened, but I felt my braces heating up, I mean _way_ hot, and then this lightning bolt flashed between my mouth and the fluorescent. Then it shot from the fluorescent straight down. A thunderclap sounded and the flash blinded me and made my eyes swim for minutes afterwards. Nina stepped away just a moment before it happened. You should have seen the floor where she was standing! It was a smoking crater, and the ceiling light had shattered, raining broken glass and shards of half-melted plastic. I got the shakes so bad...if Nina hadn't moved...

Nina and everyone thought it was just an accident. And that's what I keep telling myself, but...no. I can't kid myself. It's like my braces have a mind of their own, and they mean business. Nina's finally gone too far. How can I stop them? And how do I cope with Alden gagging and covering his mouth every time he sees me???

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Thursday

The pull's even worse now. There are lots of ceiling lights in school, of course, and it's not hard to find Nina under one of them. My mouth's sore from fighting the pull all day long. Not only that, I saw Alden with her at her locker! She just had him wrapped around her pinky. She even asked him to take her to the game tomorrow, and he said yes! I had to fight back tears. Then Nina saw me and waved, smirking. Alden saw me too and almost retched, clutching his stomach.

It's official: my life has become a nightmare.

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Friday

Last night I called my orthodontist, talked to mom, Maria, Connor; they all pooh-poohed me. Mom said it's all just manifestations of suppressed-anger disorder, and that I'm reading things into "accidents" like the cafeteria incident. Well I _know_ what's happened and what I've seen, and I'm not crazy!

Maria asked me if I'm still going to the game. I told her I didn't really feel like it. "Oh, c'mon!" she said. "It'll be fun. Take your mind off things." Yeah, right, with Nina there displaying Alden like a trophy! Somehow Maria talked me into it. Only afterward did I remember how the football field has those huge, bright, powerful stadium lights.

Oh, no! Please tell me I'm wrong about all this, that somehow mom's right after all. No, I'm not going, can't take the chance. But I promised Maria...what am I going to do???

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Saturday

Dear Diary,

I hardly know where to begin. We went to the game, but ended up not seeing it -- but I don't care at all about that.

The moment Maria, Connor and I got there, I saw Nina by standing near the sidelines, plastered to Alden. She was waiting for me! She laughed, she pointed, she howled loud enough for everyone to hear. But I guess that wasn't enough, she wanted to laugh right in my face, too, because she started skipping toward me! And I was right under one of those stadium lights! That was all the chance my braces needed. I could feel them heat up. I had to open my mouth or get my tongue scorched. Nina was two steps from me by that time. I screamed for her to get away. And of course at that very moment, she tripped and fell right into me!

Then it happened. The lightning exploded at the exact second Nina's face smacked into mine. I couldn't see anything but dazzling light, and I felt like my mouth was on fire and my teeth were all being wrenched out at once. Then I passed out.

When I came to, I was lying on the grass with everyone bent over me. Maria was patting my cheek. "Sharon? Sharon?"

I sat up. It took a minute for my head to clear. I was starting to tell her that other than feeling dizzy and sore in the mouth I was fine, when her eyes opened wide. Everyone stared. Connor pointed at me. "Sharon! Your braces are gone!"

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"Gone?" I felt in my mouth. Not a trace of metal. "But where...?"

I heard a shriek of horror to my right. "No no, this can't be happening, get them out get them _out!"_

I turned. Everyone turned. It was Nina.

And I saw what had happened to my braces.

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Monday

Nina and I saw the orthodontist today. He examined my teeth and said he'd never seen anything like it. "I don't believe it, princess," he gushed. "You don't even need'em anymore. Your teeth are straight enough for a toothpaste commercial!" Well, if I didn't believe in miracles before, I do now. Especially after the orthodontist looked at Nina.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." (She nearly slapped him when he said that). "I don't know how it happened, but they're fused to your teeth -- "

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"Fused?" She shrieked so loud I cringed. "You can't take them out?"

He shook his head. "'Fraid not, princess. The only thing that might work is a slow and painful chipping out of the metal, bit by bit. If you come see me every day, we should have it all out in..."

"WHEN?"

"Not more than two years."

I never knew anyone could bawl so loud or so hard.

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A week later

Things couldn't be better! Alden sits with me every day at lunch, and yesterday he carried my books home. There's no escaping it, we're meant for each other. Time to start making wedding plans -- graduation's only three years away! As for Nina Harper, she shuffles around the halls like a stricken scarecrow, and Alden chokes at the sight of her. "I get so sick when I see Nina," he told me today. "Kind of funny how things turn out, huh?"

Isn't it, though! ;)


End file.
